These broken stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

These broken stars is a little like Titanic meets Lost. Lilac LaRoux is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Her father takes possessive to a whole new level and would think nothing of disposing of any man that takes an interest in his daughter. Whilst on board her father’s mega inter-galactic spaceliner, Lilac meets soldier Tarver Merendsen. Tarver is a decorated war hero but is still considered ‘beneath’ Lilac in this heavily class-dominated society. When they first meet, Lilac takes a liking to Tarver but must reject him in a humiliating way to protect him from her father. Not long after this the ship is pulled out of hyperspace and Tarver and Lilac end up in the only working escape pod. They land on a seemingly uninhabited planet and must make their way to the crashed ship to seek rescue. At first they seem to despise each other but come to realise they need each other to survive and a gradual romance develops.

This book has been described as a sci-fi, action, romance and survival story but I think it is romance that dominates it. This is why I couldn’t rate it as a favourite – I am a romance cynic and most romance novels make me feel slightly queasy. In saying that I would recommend this to romance lovers and teens. It is better than teen romance like Twilight by a long shot. Both characters are strong, independent and reasonably likeable. I also found the romance was not too gag-worthy. There were no soppy, unrealistic lines and the combination of the romance with sci-fi genre made it unique. I actually enjoyed this book which surprised me.

I did find, however, that it dragged on in places. The beginning was very fast-paced and interesting however after the ship’s crash the story seemed to drag on and get repetitive. I also would have liked to have known more about the planet and the world they lived in however there are apparently two companion novels being written so maybe they’ll cover this.

Overall, I think this was a very good, unique book for teens – I’d recommend it.